Be
notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice
weekly.

Enter
E-Mail Address Below:

Subscribe
| Unsubscribe

Dark
Cloud 2

The
original Dark Cloud had a real love-hate relationship with gamers when
it came out for the Playstation 2.Some people couldnít get enough of the weapon upgrading,
randomized dungeon crawling, and setting up the different villages just
right, but others just felt it was done at far too slow of a pace.As a member of the formerís way of thinking, I have to say
Iím more than a little interested in what this sequel may have in
store for us.

This
time out, instead of a big mean genie going around destroying the world,
there is a madman traveling through time, trying to eliminate threats to
his plans by traveling to the past and destroying them before they
become a challenge.As a
result entire cities are being wiped off the map in the present and now
there is only one left, the one where the gameís hero lives.Luckily for him a friendly time traveler just happens to be in
the neighborhood and shows him how to pass through time and fix the
damage that has been done, and so the adventure begins.

Dark
Cloud 2 looks to be taking what worked in the first game and adding new
features, as opposed to taking a completely different approach to game
design.The Georama System
where players had to rebuild entire cities, is promising to be more
detailed and involving than what was found in the first game.Also, weapon and item enhancement is said to be receiving some
improvements with the inclusion of the Invention System that suggests
players will be able to create new weapons and items from base materials
instead of just finding them and making them stronger through experience
points during battle.Exploration
will still play a large

Advertisement

role in Dark Cloud 2 as well, and it looks like
the developers are planning to squeeze even more of it into this game
than there was in the last one as they are expecting people to be able
to put in about 100 hours on the sequel. However, it looks like
there will only be two playable characters this time out as opposed to
the somewhat larger cast found in the original Dark Cloud.

The
one area getting a change that will be immediately noticeable is that
the graphics are going to be cel shaded this time around, as the game
embraces the increasingly popular cartoon-like style this graphical
approach provides.

Now
all that remains to be seen is if the tweaks being made to the Georama
System and the inclusion of the Invention System will be enough draw in
nay Sayers of the first game, or will it still not satisfy them.